You are tired of the old kitchen set or want to change in the most important room in the house? Or maybe the furniture has long been worn under the action of steam, fat and water and lost all its appeal? Then conduct a thorough inspection of the headset - if the furniture housings are still able to perform their functions and do not require restoration / replacement, then it is quite possible to change only the facades - this is a practical and economical solution in most cases.
Buying new furniture is always fraught with tangible financial costs. But the replacement of the facades of the kitchen will allow to arrange the room in a new way and at the same time remains a budget solution. In addition, you may not keep the same stylistic design, but replace, for example, smooth glossy doors with classical facades with moldings or milling. So the design of your kitchen will once again become fresh and relevant.
How to choose the right material for new facades
Replacing kitchen fronts most often requires only preliminary planning of design, material and color selection from your side( as a rule, experts assume all else)The durability, functionality and attractiveness of the headset depend on the material from which the door is made. Naturally, this also affects costs. There are several solutions - more or less demanded and budget:
- Replacing facades with products from chipboard is considered the most budgetary procedure. The material made on the basis of resin and wood chips, is considered quite capricious, but still differs in wear resistance. The service life of such furniture is about 10 years, but, provided that the purchased products had certificates of quality and hygienic safety. Otherwise, almost a year later, the chipboard will begin to swell or crumble, and the protective film will deteriorate.
- Decided to change the facades by installing MDF doors on the furniture? They will serve about 7 years.
MDF is an artificial, quite attractive in appearance material - it is much easier and cheaper than natural wood. Such designs will be a real decoration of the headset - after all, you can order MDF with photo printing or material with an unsurpassed glossy effect.
Among the advantages of the material are the stability of the fasteners, resistance to many external influences( moisture, temperature, mechanical wear), resistance to bacteria, and ease of maintenance( you can not only wash but also clean it with soft abrasives).
- Replacing kitchen fronts with modern plastic is also an excellent solution, since it is a wear-resistant material that remains in its original form for a long time.
- Not necessarily the facades of kitchen furniture must be deaf - they can be made of glass or with glass inserts. Often decorated glass is used for a classic headset - with thematic drawings or with abstract patterns, and transparent or semi-matte white glass is suitable for a modern kitchen in the Scandinavian style. Glass can also be darkened, painted, corrugated. Among the advantages of such facades - resistance to external contamination and chemical agents.
Tip! In the house where there are children, you can use an alternative - Plexiglas. Its main characteristics are low weight and immunity to mechanical damage.
- If the budget allows, then a great option - the facades of solid wood. If such products are too expensive, then they can be replaced with veneered structures that fully preserve all the nobility of wood texture.
Replacing the facades of kitchen furniture and requires the choice of texture. So, the variant with a protective glossy film will look attractive, but at the same time it will keep the budget. Painted matte surfaces are presentable and styled, but they require special care, without which their surface quickly becomes stained.
Frame facades can be the perfect decoration for a headset, allowing you to combine two or more materials on one door. Moldings and cutters on the facades of furniture can be very different, you will have plenty to choose from.
The color of the frame of the old kitchen is not suitable for new facades?
So what if the color of the body of your headset is different from the color of the desired facades? It does not matter. Inside the frame will be visible only when the doors are opened, and in addition, the body can be repainted, updated with self-adhesive film or sheathed with veneer.
Tip! If in doubt, what color of the facades exactly fit the existing frame, then feel free to choose white. Be sure it fits any body color. In addition, light shades visually increase the space and add light to the kitchens located in the shadow side.
Stages of work
Most masters recommend not to carry out work on the replacement of furniture fronts with their own hands, and at all stages( from calculation to dismantling and installation) to involve specialists. Although, if your kitchen is of standard size, in good working condition and has no complicated closers, then you can upgrade the kitchen yourself.
The required dimensions of furniture fronts are calculated quite easily: 3 mm is taken from the height of the cabinet to determine the height, and 4 mm from the corresponding cabinet size to determine the width.
After this work is carried out in the following sequence:
- The doors of the cabinets are milled under the hinges;
- Handles are attached to them, for which preliminary marking is carried out in accordance with the selected fittings;
- The prepared parts are hung on the case - for this purpose, a foot is attached to the walls, which is sold with hinges;
- The element hinged on the foot is adjusted vertically and horizontally with special screws.
How to care for new facades
In order for the updated kitchen to retain its attractiveness for a long time, you need to ensure the facades have the right( depending on the material) care:
- The facades of chipboard, MDF are not left on the surface of greasy stains, and therefore regular wet cleaning will be enough;
- Wood structures should be protected from direct sunlight and cleaned with a soft cloth with chlorine-free products;
- For glass, liquids are used that do not leave streaks after washing, but abrasive powders, scrapers or brushes are not used;
- Stains on laminated, lacquered doors are removed with suede or any other dry soft cloth.
And for any kitchen fronts are not recommended the use of aggressive acids or alkalis for cleaning.
